Fired PSU fencing coach awaits ruling on grievance

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State is obligated to make a decision about a grievance hearing concerning fired fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov by today, according to his attorney, Alvin de Levie.

De Levie said the grievance hearing was early last week and Penn State administrators offered two reasons the coach was fired in late August.

The first stemmed from an issue of retaliation, previously reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which Kaidanov confronted an administrative assistant who had reported a fencer for possessing marijuana. The fencer, Kane Gladnick, has said she was holding a rolled-up piece of athletic tape and cleared the matter with university police and passed an optional drug test.

De Levie said Kaidanov asked the administrative assistant to keep him informed in situations such as those.

Second, according to de Levie, Penn State representatives said Kaidanov was fired because he criticized Penn State's reporting guidelines, calling them "rotten." De Levie said his client believed they were "rotten" because he thought they didn't have enough safeguards -- primarily concerning the eradication of a report if the accused person was found innocent.

"The athletic director lost confidence in coach K, but never asked why he thought they were rotten," de Levie said.

"They tried to use this policy to kowtow to the NCAA, and they threw coach K under the bus."

A spokesperson for the Penn State athletic department did not respond to a request for comment. Previously, athletic director Dave Joyner said he could not comment on this story because it involves a personnel issue.

At the grievance hearing, de Levie said, Kaidanov vowed he would follow the reporting policy even though he didn't agree with every facet of it. De Levie said Kaidanov's goal is to be reinstated and to reform the reporting policies.